


Left 4 Dead (But Not Really)

by c0cunt



Series: BeruJean Week 2016 [4]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Video & Computer Games, it's touched upon lightly, jean makes youtube videos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-18
Updated: 2016-03-18
Packaged: 2018-05-27 11:52:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6283435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/c0cunt/pseuds/c0cunt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bertholdt and Jean haven't been able to spend much time together lately, with Jean always hunching over his computer for work, and Bertholdt taking the night shift as a favor to his boss.  So Jean doesn't want to miss spending any bit of time that he can with his boyfriend</p>
            </blockquote>





	Left 4 Dead (But Not Really)

  Bertholdt fidgeted in his chair as Jean quickly bounced from behind his monitors to peering over Bertholdt’s shoulder, and back, mumbling to himself.  Jean had been doing that for the past fifteen minutes, trying to get Bertholdt’s mic to be sensitive enough to capture him speaking, but not so sensitive that it would catch Jean’s speech too.  It was, quite honestly, a losing battle, but each time Bertholdt opened his mouth to voice his thoughts to his boyfriend, he merely paused for half a second before kissing Bertholdt’s open mouth, and confidently saying “I can’t make it work, babe” before going straight back to grumbling at and adjusting the mic.  Bertholdt would then sigh and pick at his nails, as Jean continued to battle with technology and get increasingly frustrated as the cycle repeated.

  “Jean, honestly, it’d be easier if I just set up in the other room,” Bertholdt said, extremely reasonably, as Jean let out a few tiny screams of frustration as he slapped at the mic settings.  Jean looked miserable, even though he shook his head sharply and continued battling, as Bertholdt got several annoyed texts from Eren and Reiner, both of them asking what was taking the two of them so long to get on the server they’d set up.  Bertholdt sighed and continued to watch Jean, still receiving texts, until Eren sent one that said if they were fucking he was going to kick their asses.  “Jean, Eren’s gonna kick your ass if we don’t join their server soon,” Bertholdt translated, raising an eyebrow as Jean let out a noise that sounded very much like a horse’s whinny.  Apparently, it was a sound of defeat, as Jean smacked his head against his desk and stayed there.

  “I just wanted to game in the same room as you…It feels like it’s been forever since we even hung out in the same goddamn room,”  Jean grumbled into the desk, barely lifting his head so that he could tilt up to look pleadingly at Bertholdt.  He couldn’t even argue with Jean’s complaint; with him working night shift (as a favor to his boss), and Jean having to constantly huddle in his recording room to make sure he had something that was ready to go, the amount of time they could spend together was really depressingly small lately.  Bertholdt stood up (internally cheering over not hitting his damn knee against the stupidly short desk again), and carefully dodged the pile of cables that were tangled across the floor, to hug Jean from behind.  Jean whined again, but didn’t protest as Bertholdt gently manhandled him out of the slumped position he was in, so that his head was now resting near Bertholdt’s shoulder.  Bertholdt hummed and peppered Jean’s face with tiny, sweet kisses for a moment (Jean let out a rumbling noise that could’ve been an imitation of a purr), before letting his head rest against Jean’s.

  “Y’know, we don’t have to record, right?  We could just play together, like we used to?”  Bertholdt suggested mildly.  Jean blinked rapidly for a few seconds, as if the thought hadn’t occurred to him (which, knowing Jean, it probably hadn’t until Bertholdt mentioned it), before nodding a few times.

  “Yeah…Yeah, I kinda forgot what it’s like to not constantly be recording…”  Jean sighed, still nodding slightly.  He wiggled out of Bertholdt’s hug, and quickly closed down several different programs on his computer.  Jean shot a sharp grin up at Bertholdt, who was still standing behind him, and laughed.  “What’re you still doin’ here?  Get ready, we’re gonna kick zombie asses!”  Jean whooped, shoving Bertholdt back towards where his computer was set up.  Bertholdt smiled, dropping one last kiss onto Jean’s head, before going back over to his computer and starting up the game.  Jean started a Skype call, Eren and Reiner already yelling abuse at the pair of them, and they quickly joined the server.

* * *

 

  Of course, the game went terribly, with how infrequently all four of them played.  Eren and Jean screamed at each other constantly, shoot more zombies, move faster, no come back here, and other annoyed instructions about how the other sucked so badly.  Reiner and Bertholdt kept making faces at their webcams when their teammates would start bickering, until one of them shrieked with fright at suddenly being attacked and dragged away by special infected zombies.  Somehow they had struggled through a majority of the campaign, and only now were they almost finished with it.

  “Wait, no!” Jean shrieked in panic as he realized that Bertholdt was being dragged away while their two other teammates had already boarded the plane that would end the campaign.

  “Jean, c’mon, we gotta go, Bertl’s gonna die anyway,” Eren snapped, annoyed and pointing out the obvious as Bertholdt’s character HP bar steadily decreased.

  “Nononononono”  Jean chanted under his breath as his character turned back around and struggled back through hoards of zombies that seemed to flow endlessly towards the survivors, apparently intent on rescuing Bertholdt.

  “Jean, get on the plane, I’m dead anyway,” Bertholdt said mildly, sitting up a bit straighter to look across the room at Jean.  Jean let out a low whimpering noise as Bertholdt’s character was x’d out in red and black, before scrambling away from the computer and flinging himself into Bertholdt’s lap, completely oblivious to the game still going on.  Unsure of what to do, Bertholdt patted Jean’s back as he wiggled as closely to Bertholdt’s body as physically possible without carving out a spot inside of his body.  Eren and Reiner screeched through their headsets at Jean for fucking them over, even though Jean’s character went down soon enough and the credits began rolling.  

  “What the fuck was that all about?”  Eren asked, after he and Reiner had heckled the other two for a few minutes without interruption.  Bertholdt didn’t respond, instead reaching around Jean to end the call quickly and exit out of the game; he’d deal with the annoyed messages in a few minutes, but right now he had what appeared to be an emotionally distraught Jean who was clinging to him like the world was ending.

  “Jean, are you...Okay?”  Bertholdt asked hesitantly, carding a hand through Jean’s soft hair.  Jean grunted at him, burrowing his face further into Bertholdt’s neck, the death-grip he had wrapped him into unrelenting.  Bertholdt raised an eyebrow, but continued to hold Jean as best he could, and murmured “It was just a game, Jean, everything’s fine.”  It took a long time before Jean slowly relaxed, along with more than a handful of encouraging words, but eventually Jean sniffled and lifted his head out of where it had been resting for the better part of an hour.  Bertholdt tried to ignore the sudden cold as damp fabric and skin was exposed to fresh air, but couldn’t suppress a small shiver.

  “Bath time?”  Bertholdt whispered the question into Jean’s forehead, smiling slightly as Jean nodded with a few more accompanying sniffles.  “S’fine, sweetheart,” Bertholdt mumbled quickly as Jean started to unwillingly let go, gripping tightly into firm thighs encouragingly as he moved to stand.  Jean’s legs locked around Bertholdt’s waist immediately, and Jean breathed a happy sigh into his neck as he once again laid his head down.  Bertholdt really preferred showers, but he figured he could indulge and share a long, warm bath with his boyfriend, at least this one time.


End file.
